A/N: I don't own the rights to any of the Percy Jackson series or it's characters. That right goes to Rick Riordan. I also don't own the rights to Animorph including it's title.

I am, however, the person who posted 'The Tales of...' series.

This is not a crossover of the Percy Jackson series with the book/tv series Animorph, despite what you might think from the title. I just thought it be a proper name for the ability to turn into animals since that's why the tv/book series 'Animorph' was called that in the first place.

If you haven't read this yet, read:

Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Stolen Chariot
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sword of Hades
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Bronze Dragon

Camp Continues As Normal During War

I dreamed Rachel Elizabeth Dare was throwing darts at my picture.

She was standing in her room... Okay, back up. I have to explain that Rachel doesn't have a room. She has the top floor on her family's mansion, which is a renovated brownstone in Brooklyn. Her "room" is a huge loft with industrial lighting and floor to ceiling windows. It's about twice as big as my mom's apartment.

Some alt rock was blaring from her paint-covered Bose docking system. As far as I could tell, Rachel's only rule about music was that no two songs on her iPod could sound the same, and they all had to be strange.

She wore a kimono, and her hair was frizzy, like she'd been sleeping. Her bed was messed up. Sheets hung over a bunch of artist's easels. Dirty clothes and old energy bar wrappers were strewn around the floor, but when you've got a room that big, the mess doesn't look so bad. Out the windows you could see the entire nighttime skyline of Manhattan.

The picture she was attacking was a painting of me standing over the giant Antaeus. Rachel had painted it a couple of months ago. My expression in the picture was fierce-disturbing even-so it was hard to tell if I was the good guy or the bad guy, but Rachel said I'd looked just like that after the battle.

"Demigods," Rachel muttered as she threw another dart at the canvas. "And their stupid quests."

Most of the darts bounced off, but a few stuck. One hung off my chin like a goatee.

Someone pounded on her bedroom door.

"Rachel!" a man shouted. "What in the world are you doing? Turn off that-"

Rachel scooped up her remote control and shut off the music. "Come in!"

Her dad walked in, scowling and blinking from the light. He had rust-colored hair a little darker than Rachel's. It was smushed on one side like he'd lost a fight with his pillow. His blue silk pajamas had "WD" monogrammed on the pocket. Seriously, who has monogrammed pajamas.

"What is going on?" he demanded. "It's three in the morning."

"Couldn't sleep," Rachel said.

On the painting, a dart fell off my face. Rachel hid the rest behind her back, but Mr. Dare noticed.

"So... I take it your friend isn't coming to St. Thomas?" That's what Mr. Dare called me. Never Percy. Just your friend. Or young man if he was talking to me, which he rarely did.

Rachel knit her eyebrows. "I don't know."

"We leave in the morning," her dad said. "If he hasn't made up his mind yet-"

"He's probably not coming," Rachel said miserably. "Happy?"

Mr. Dare put his hands behind his back. He paced the room with a stern expression. I imagined he did that in the boardroom of his land development company and made his employees nervous.

"Are you still having bad dreams?" He asked. "Headaches?"

Rachel threw her darts on the floor. "I should never have told you about that."

"I'm your father," he said. "I'm worried about you."

"Worried about the family's reputation," Rachel muttered.

Her father didn't react-maybe because he'd heard that comment before, or maybe because it was true.

"We could call Dr. Arkwright," he suggested. "He helped you get through the death of your hamster."

"I was six then," she said. "And no, Dad. I don't need a therapist. I just..." She shook her head helplessly.

Her father stopped in front of the windows. He gazed at the New York Skyline as if he owned it-which wasn't true. He only owned part of it.

"It will be good for you to get away," he decided. "You've had some unhealthy influences."

"I'm not going to Clarion Ladies Academy," Rachel said. "And my friends are none of your business."

Mr. Dare smiled, but it wasn't a warm smile. It was more like, Someday you'll realized how silly you sound.

"Try to get some sleep," he urged. "We'll be at the beach by tomorrow night. It will be fun."

"Fun," Rachel repeated. "Lots of fun."

Her father exited the room. He left the door open behind him.

Rachel stared at the portrait of me. Then she walked to the easel next to it, which was covered in a sheet.

"I hope they're dreams," she said.

She uncovered the easel. On it was a hastily sketched charcoal, but Rachel was a good artist. The picture was definitely Luke as a young boy. He was about nine years old, with a wide grin and no scar on his face. I had no idea how Rachel could've known what he looked like back then, but the portrait was so good I had a feeling she wasn't guessing. From what I knew about Luke's life (which wasn't much), the picture showed him just before he found out he was a half-blood and had run away from home.

Rachel stared at the portrait. Then she uncovered the next easel. This portrait wa seven more disturbing. It showed the Empire State Building with lightning all around it. In the distance a dark storm was brewing, with a huge hand coming out of the clouds. At the base of the building a crowd had gathered... but it wasn't a normal crowd of tourists and pedestrians. I saw spears, javelins, and banners-the trappings of an army.

"Percy," Rachel muttered, as if she knew I was listening, "what is going on?"

The dream faded, and the last thing I remember was wishing I could answer her question.

...

The next morning, I wanted to call Rachel, but there were no phones at camp. Dionysus and Chiron didn't need a landline. They just called Olympus with an Iris-message whenever they needed something. And when demigods use cell phones, the signals agitate every monster within a hundred miles. It's like sending up a flare: Here I am! Please rearrange my face! Even within the safe borders of camp, that's not the kind of advertising we wanted to do.

Most demigods (except for Annabeth and a few others) don't even own cell phones. And I definitely couldn't tell Annabeth, "Het, let me borrow your phone so I can call Rachel!" To make the call, I would've had to leave camp and travel several miles to the nearest convenience store. Even if I can sneak out, by time I got there, i be exhausted from the journey and Rachel would've been on the plane to St. Thomas.

I ate a depressing breakfast by myself at the Poseidon table. I kept staring at the fissure in the marble floor where two winters ago, Nico had banished a bunch of bloodthirsty skeletons to the Underworld. The memory didn't exactly improve my appetite.

...

After breakfast, Annabeth and I walked down to inspect the cabins. Actually, it was Annabeth's turn for inspection. My morning chore was to sort through reports for Chiron. But since we both hated our jobs, we decided to do them together so it wouldn't be so heinous.

We started at Poseidon cabin, which was basically just me. Annabeth gave me a three out of five despite my protest due to a few thrown clothes.

I tried to skim through Chiron's stack of reports as we walked. There were messages from demigods, nature spirits, and satyrs all around the country, writing about the latest monster activity. They were pretty depressing, and my ADHD brain did not like concentrating on depressing stuff.

Little battles were raging everywhere. Camp recruitment was down to zero. Satyrs were having trouble finding new demigods and bringing them to Half-Blood Hill because so many monsters were roaming the country. Thalia, who led the Hunters of Artemis, hadn't been heard from in months, and if Artemis knew what had happened to them, she wasn't sharing information.

We visited Aphrodite cabin, which of course got a five out of five. The beds were perfectly made. The clothes in everyone's footlockers were color coordinated. Fresh flowers bloomed on the windowsills. I wanted to dock a point because the whole place reeked of designer perfume, but Annabeth ignored me.

"Great job as usual, Silena," Annabeth said.

"Thank you Annabeth. Oh, here Percy," Silena handed me a box of chocolates. "I asked my dad to send them as thanks for saving Charlie's life on the Princess Andromeda."

"Thanks," I responded as I tried a chocolate. I knew her dad owned a chocolate store in the Village, which was how he'd caught the attention of Aphrodite.

The wall behind Silena's bed was decorated with pictures of Beckendorf. Which wasn't a surprise. Every child of Aphrodite seem to have a claim to a part of the wall where they framed pictures. Although most of them were of famous people, some like Silena had pictures of boyfriends or secret crush. Still we can't use that to deduct points as even the pictures and posters are neatly organized.

"Any luck convincing Clarisse to let her siblings fight?" Annabeth asked.

Silena shook her head. "Sorry guys, Clarisse said the entire cabin was dishonored not just her, so the entire Cabin stays out of it. Even Chris Rodriguez backed me up and she stormed off angry."

"We'll have to hope that Clarisse gets over it, then," Annabeth sighed. "Thanks for trying Silena."

We said our goodbyes and kept going.

As we crossed the commons area, a fight broke out between Ares and Apollo cabins. Some Apollo campers armed with firebombs flew over the Ares cabin in a chariot pulled by two pegasi. I'd never seen the chariot before, but it looked like a pretty sweet ride. Soon, the roof of Ares cabin was burning, and naiads from the canoe lake rushed over to blow wate ron it.

Then the Ares campers called down a curse, and all the Apollo's kids arrows turned to rubber. The Apollo kids kept shooting at the Ares kids but the arrows bounced off.

Austin Lake and Kayla Knowles of Apollo Cabin ran by, chased by Sherman Yang-son of Ares-who was yelling in poetry. "Curse me, eh? I'll make you pay! I don't want to rhyme all day!"

Annabeth sighed. "Not that again. Last time Apollo cursed a cabin it took a week for the rhyming couplets to wear off."

I shuddered. Apollo was god of poetry as well as archery, and I'd heard him recite in person. I'd almost rather yet shot by an arrow.

"What are they fighting about anyway?" I asked. "I mean, it's one thing when Michael and Clarisse were just fighting each other over what range is best, but now both of their cabins have joined in."

"They're fighting over that flying chariot," Annabeth said as she scribbled on her inspection scroll, giving both cabins one out of five. "They capture it in a raid in Philadelphia last week. Some of Luke's demigods were there with that flying chariot. The Apollo cabin seized it during the battle, but Ares cabin led the raid. So they've been fighting about who gets it ever since."

We ducked as Michael Yew's chariot dive-bombed Sherman. Sherman tried to stab him and curse him out in rhyming couplets. Sherman was pretty creative about rhyming those curse words.

"We're fighting for our lives," I said, "and they're bickering about some stupid chariot."

"They'll get over it," Annabeth said. "Clarisse will come to her senses."

I wasn't so sure. That didn't sound like the Clarisse I knew. But since Annabeth had the fatal flaw of deadly pride, I figured she knew what it's like to deal with wounded pride better than I do, so I take her word for it.

I scanned more reports and we inspected few more cabins. Demeter got a four as their were still bits of chocolate on the grass roof. Hephaestus got a three which was normal for them as their tools and gear are out of place like their father's workshops (Annabeth and I know because we been in one). Hermes got a two, which was no surprise. All campers who didn't know their godly parentage or were child of a minor god who don't have a cabin got shoved into Hermes cabins. It didn't help the gods were kind of forgetful or have expectations from their kids that must be reach before claimed, so that cabin was always overcrowded. But since Apollo and Ares got a one, they won't get last place.

Finally we got to Athena cabin, which was orderly and clean as usual. Books were straightened on the shelves. The armor was polished. Battle maps and blueprints decorated the walls. Only Annabeth's bunk was messy. It was covered in apers and her silver laptop was still running. Although it was just as dangerous for demigods to use modern technology as it is for us to use cellphones, the laptop was enchanted to block the signals from reaching monsters.

"Vlocos," Annabeth muttered which was basically calling herself an idiot in Greek.

Her second-in-command, Malcolm Pace, suppressed a smile. "Yeah, um... we cleaned everything else. Didn't know if it was safe to move your notes."

That was probably smart. Annabeth had a bronze knife that she reserved just for monsters and people who messed with her stuff.

Malcolm grinned at me. "We'll wait outside while you finish inspection." The Athena campers filed out the door while Annabeth cleaned up her bunk.

At first I found myself staring at Annabet as she cleaned her bunk, which was stupid since I'd seen her a billion times. She and I were about the same height this summer., which was a relief. Still, she seemed so much mature. It was kind of intimidating. I mean sure, she always been cute, but she was starting to be seriously beautiful.

I shuffled uneasily and pretended to go through some more reports. Technically, even on inspection, it was against the camp rules for two campers who aren't siblings to be... like, alone in a cabin

That rule had come up a lot when Silena and Beckendorf started dating. And I know some of you might be thinking. Aren't all demigods related on the godly side, and doesn't that make dating gross? But the thing is, the godly side of your family only count in genetics in terms of siblings, since gods don't really have DNA. So although it is gross for two demigods with the same godly parent to be dating, two demigods from two separate godly parents aren't considered related so its no problem.

Anyway, for some strange reason I was thinking about this as I watch Annabeth straighten up. She closed her laptop, which had been given to her as a gift from the inventor Daedalus last summer. Although both are children of Athena, from what Annabeth told me, although Athena is the goddess of inventors, its a rare blessing for Athena to have a child that is a skilled inventor, and that Annabeth wasn't blessed as Daedalus in that domain. Still, with Beckendorf and Hephaestus Cabin's help, Annabeth been finding ways to put the designs for Daedalus' inventions to good use.

I cleared my throat. "So... get any good info from that thing?"

"Too much," she said. "Daedalus had so many ideas. I could spend fifty years just trying to figure them all out."

"Yeah," I muttered. "That would be fun."

She shuffled her papers-mostly drawings of buildings and a bunch of handwritten notes. I knew she wanted to be an architect someday, but I learned the hard way not to ask what she was working on. She'd start talking about angles and load bearings joints, until my eyes glazed over.

"Is everything cool with your family?" I asked wanting to change topics.

Annabeth nodded. "My dad wanted to take me to Greece this summer," she said wistfully. "I've always wanted to see-"

"The Parthenon," I remembered.

She manage a smile. "Yeah."

"That's okay. There'll be other summers, right?"

As soon as I said it, I realized it was a boneheaded comment. I was facing the end of my days. Within a week, Olympus might fall. If the Age of the Gods really did end, the world as we know it would dissolve into chaos. Demigods would be hunted to extinction. There would be no more summers for us.

I guess Annabeth was use to me saying stupid things like that by now, because she just stared at her inspection scroll. "Three out of five," she muttered, "for a sloppy head counselor. Come on. Let's finish your reports and get back to Chiron."

On the way to the Big House, we read the last report, which was handwritten on a maple leaf from a satyr in Canada. If possible, the note made me feel even worse.

"Dear Grover," I read aloud. "'Woods outside Toronto attacked by giant evil badger. Tried to do as you suggested and summon the power of Pan. No effect. Many dryad trees destroyed. Retreating to Ottawa. Please advise. Where are you?-Gleeson Hedge, protector."

Annabeth grimaced. "You haven't heard anything from him? Even with your empathy link?"

I shook my head dejectedly.

Ever since last summer when the god Pan had died, our friend Grover had been drifting farther and farther away. The satyrs of the Council of Cloven Elders treated him like an outcast despite Dionysus, Chiron, and Bianca voting for him and Dionysus getting double votes, but Grover still travel all over the East Coast, trying to spread the word about Pan and convince nature spirits to protect their own little bits of wild. H'd only come back to camp a few times to see his girlfriend Juniper.

Last I'd heard he was in Central Park organizing the dryads, but nobody had seen or heard from in in two months. We'd tried to send Iris-messages. They never got through. I had an empathy link with Grover, so I hoped I would know if anything bad happened to him. Grover had told me one time that if he died, the empathy link might kill me too. But I wasn't sure if that was still true or not.

I wondered if he was still in Manhattan. Then I thought about my dream of Rachel's sketch-dark clouds closing on the city, an army gathered around the Empire State Building.

"Annabeth," I stopped her by the tether coart. I knew I was asking for trouble, but I didn't know who else to trust. Plus, I'd always depended on Annabeth for advice. "Listen, I had this dream about, Nico and, um Rachel The vision kind..." I added the last part so Annabeth hopefully to defuse the situation before it starts.

First I explained how I saw Nico at the Titan Base. I didn't mention his plan still, but I still made it clear that I think Nico been acting as a spy for us. Then came the vision of Rachel and the weird picture of Luke as a child.

For a while she didn't say anything. Then she rolled up her inspection scroll so tight she ripped it. "You were right not to tell the council about Nico without knowing who is Kronos spy, but we should tell Chiron at least."

I'm guessing she decided to approach Nico over Rachel.

"I thought you might say that," I sighed. "But what about Rachel's picture?"

"Percy," Annabeth said, her voice tight, "Rachel is just a mortal."

"But what if her dream is true? If what Nico saw is true, Olympus would be destroyed in a matter of days. They said they had plenty of other challenges. And what';s with that picture of Luke as a kid-"

"We'll just have to be ready."

"How?" I said. "Look at our camp. We can't even stop fighting each other. Meanwhile Kronos might have other surprises involving the Minor gods. That might be why they weren't at Mount Othyrs or Princess Andromeda."

"So what? You want to run away?" Annabeth asked. "Go on that vacation with Rachel?"

"No! But we got to do more than be ready," I said. "I don't want to be the cause of Olympus' destruction when my soul is reaped because I couldn't help the camp prepare for the worse."

"So that's it, you're scared you would fail Olympus when you die," Annabeth said. "Maybe we should just run and hide instead of facing it head on."

"No, that's not what I mean..."

"Well it seemed like it," Annabeth said. "Whenever you can't face something you run. But guess what Percy, you can't run from everything!"

With that she pushed past me and stormed toward the strawberry fields. She hit the tetherball as she passed and sent it spinning around the pole.

Well that could have gone better.